Friday 21 September 2012

Powerlessness

I am teetering on the edge of annihilation. I am standing in the gateway of hell. I am toying with death, playing Russian roulette.
On Saturday at the Petersfield meeting the second part of Step 12 was read. The part starts with discussion about relationships. From the 12 x12 it reads thus:
"...we do have sex and marital problems, and sometimes they are distressingly accuse."
This is try for me on the basis that it's not the physical sex but that is what's underlying the distressingly acute problem of confusion with sex. It underlies the human attraction. I imagine that with the slightest smile all the hormones and nerve endings are set in motion.
G over a period of months has shown an interest in me. Nothing dramatically obvious. Friendliness in a meeting, then more regularly sitting next to me, then taking my number to invite me to do a chair, then calls, then an afternoon walking. All the time I'm becoming more hooked. There's an attraction about him. But also many things that do not fit. I guess in usual circumstances it would be dating that would reveal if some things are too difficult to live with than the good things or whether they pale into insignificance. Anyhow I have a commitment to not dating and as rightly pointed out to me, one on one anything is a form of dating.
"...Nearly every human being experiences, at some time in life, a compelling desire to find a mate of the opposite sex with whom the fullest possible union can be made - spiritual, mental, emotional, physical. This mighty urge is the root of all human accomplishments, a creative energy that deeply influences our lives. God fashioned us this way. So our question will be this: How, by ignorance, compulsion, and self-will, do we misuse this gift for our own destruction?"
Where do I start? So the gradual drip, drip feed was being mastered. Perhaps knowingly perhaps not. I suspect the former. Gosh! I want to regain my dignity and if even suspecting that to not be sucked into it. I want to trust but I need to listen to my instinct too. After all I know he went out with A who was married. And he has this fondness and ongoing connection with another married woman who once he fantasised about living with. He cancelled a "date" with me because she dropped something on him at the last minute. I know this is the material for my self destruction.
Yes I was disappointed at being dropped. It's how it is and more evidence that this isn't for me. I deserve better. And all my insecurities are on the surface. Late night texts, contact with many women, and I start to go into the decline of comparison. "why aren't I enough?"
We are not having a relationship. We both said that in a semi open conversation on Sunday just gone. A lovely afternoon walk. The discussion included (things I remember) him saying that he has issues making commitments. The other woman - I got the message I believe that she will always come first. He brought up having sex with me. I spoke about a commitment to no dating and just not ready to enter into any relationship right now.
And yet i thought that was enough to then continue with this contact. In fact it increased my desire. The destructive compulsion.
There are a number of things that just don't attract me to him yet there are a number of more subtle things that do.
I keep hearing myself say "you're so like my dad". Cynical, derogatory about people, demeaning and dismissing. He is intelligent as in he knows a lot about facts but in terms of living and kind, he's still locked into the resentments of a little hurt boy and screaming angrily at the world. His solace is in the countryside with animals but without people.
 
So last night I had to go there I suppose. I engineered it so that G would take me to the meeting. I wanted to appear as a particular somebody. God gave it all to me. A person returning to the rooms. A guy seated next to me who was new and from the treatment centre I was using as bait with G. That sounds horrible writing it but it's the truth. All the wrong reasons for going to a meeting. And then the chair talked about a relationship she'd just come out of nearly crippling her. It sounded so familiar. All the usual undignified behaviours and interactions that I have from my past. The indignity that comes with insecurity and already I can feel that with G. The lack of self worth creeping in as I just accept that I am cancelled for someone else who I deem as more important so of course you can cancel me.
Bloody hell. It's not okay. And ironic that I am faced with this unmanageability and insane thinking. The compulsion has been furious. Gaining momentum at the slightest hint of me trying to do it my way. I am meek against this compulsion. I am being sucked into the black hole this time with my eyes wide open.
Thank you God for the clarity to see the signs. I knew them but have been denying them. Thank you for keeping that darkness of denial from completely descending. Thank you for the ability to get honest.
Ironic as I stand on the threshold of Step 3 and making a decision. I really want my recovery. I am an addict without doubt. I am both devastated to really feel the power of it and delighted. I have less and less doubts. Please God may I continue to strengthen my commitment to my recovery.
As the clarity is coming through my desire for recovery I am beginning to know what I need to say.
I will write it as a prompt. I do not want to be swayed. I partially said it but with so much reluctance. I knew I was resistant. Now I'm not. I want recovery. Maybe this will mean another 90 days. I suspect so. Whatever it takes.
The most important thing is that I cut the contact. I don't want to have to but I know I need to. No walks, no more chats on the phone. I hope that G will understand its not him, it's all me. What's good for him I fully accept. I hope that he'll be open to friendship in the future and who knows maybe I'll be more available to date and get to know him better. That's not what I'll say. There must be a better way if saying that. I do not want him to think in any way this is judgement of him. I like him very much and that's the start of the problem.
Thank you God for this resolve. Okay it's now in the action I take.
I commit fully to my recovery.
Please God help me to have the strength to put my recovery first.
Thank you for the vision, awareness and foresight. Including the returning person J , the chair and 12 step reading. Plus all the signs when interacting with G. Thank you God.
Bliss
Xx

Sunday 16 September 2012

Sisyphian G-force

This is a Sisyphian illness. I put one thing down and another pops up. Food down, men up. Excuse the turn of phrase. I really enjoy G's company and by getting overly involved my head is messed up. Questioning what this thing is that we're doing. I need to explain that it is messing with me head whatever it is because I am finding I am liking him more and more. What I need to add that is that I have made a commitment to no dating and that means no one on one contact of any sort. Meetings and when there are other people about is just fine. I don't really want that though. I keep making the commitment to doing it and never doing it.
And as discussed around the AA Big Book stories it is not okay to say "I know I'm over doing it but frankly I'm just not ready to stop." What kind of justification is that?
But I'm not. I like the attention even though my head is a fuzz-ball with it and I'm spinning into the insecurity and loss of myself. Trying to be interesting and jolly and likeable. I am trying to be everything so he has no need to go elsewhere. And yet I am pretty certain like he is for me I am a distraction for him. He doesn't sleep he says. Well he sleeps well enough in the mornings so if he went to bed earlier he would get better sleep. But he doesn't sleep and so I am willing to talk for ages therefore he will call me.
He definately makes bee-lines for newcomer women. What's that all about. He says he's drawing back from E. His reason is that she says some things he finds unpleasant. He hasn't dealt with that. He hasn't said anything he simply withdraws. I don;t want to be with someone like that and yet I am writing this and still planning to find out if I mean something different to him. Oh God help me. Help me to be willing to put all this madness down.
So today we are meeting for a walk. I don't tell M things these days because I always feel judged. Rather than going along with what I am doing I stay quiet and of course she will feel that distance because it's there. And I don't know how to tell her that I feel criticised and judged at times. There is a righteousness that's quite unhelpful.
I need to go an get my breakfast and give LouLou hers too.
This is of course the same illness. It really doesn't matter what it is I pick up. I am a food addict. I get confused why it is so important to keep that label when other labels are not so necessary. However I als see that it doesn't matter what the label is anyway. The fact is that whatever the illness is I have it involves this compulsive and impulsive and obsessive behaviour. Ad this is the first part that I need to step away from to get well. If I keep that alive it can spread and infiltrate the other areas of the mental illness. I already have the compulsive negativity and impulsively turn to self-htred without the bat on an eyelid.
Okay I think I can become more willing. I just need to keep writing about the craziness in my head. Last evening he was standing outside, he was low in mood it seemed and extra critical. He said that this was another meeting he'd start avoiding. I could easily start following him around the rooms. He mentioned going to Bishops Waltham. I will go perhaps but it's Friday so why would I start giving up my committed meetings? I will stop going to Wednesday whilst S is secretary. I find her difficult at the best of times. However G is so extremely negative about lots of people and I can start joining in when all I want to do is find the best in everyone. It is so easy for me to tune into the negativity. His view taints my own.
And then he was standing there on his own. I didn't know whether to go and speak or not but did. He was receiving a text and I assumed there are a number of women he recives texts from. Of course I will not be the only one. There is this woman he was in love with and still fond of. He still has contact with her and her husband. It's all cock-eyed. That doesn't appear healthy. And the same applies to his contact with me. it seems a little predatory and late night calls and unhealthy. I thought that from the beginning. But then what is healthy and how do people get connecting. Bloody hell the step last evening was the second part of Step 12 - talk about sexual relationships and healthy relationships in AA. I know I felt uncomfortable. I thought I detected a discomfort in him too. It's definitely necessary for me to step aside. But it feels so difficult to do this.
And the fact that he rarely works and doesn't present himself very tidily and cleanly.
I can see all the writing on the wall. But I romanticise all of this.
God please help me to have the willingness to put this all down. Pleeeease.
How do I really do that and not hurt him as well. I don't want to. And yet I'm enjoying the attention even though I can take a pretty good view on the reality of ot.
I want him to fall in love with me and want me. To hurt for me like I hurt inside for my dad or someone. But I don't really want him to hurt at all.
It's all too crazy you see - already.
So today we have a date to go out for a walk. A date is a date to meet up whether there is anything romatically insinuated or not is neither here nor there. How can I be so crazy??
As S mentioned - it's like a story she had read in the Big Book with a man running around a lake with his trousers on fire screaming in pain but not jumping into the lake to put the fire out.
I know what's happening to me and yet not doing what I know I need to to put the fire out.
It will result in relapse on food I suspect. I was feeling foody last night. A first sign.

Please God help to find the willingness. I want to ask G today what is actually going on between us because I am beginning to develop feelings for hmi.
But what I need to say is that what we're doing is messing with my head as I am having feelings for him. And I have a commitment to my recovery not to be dating with anyone for the time being. Yet that's what I am wanting more and more. It's definitely not the right time for me to get involved right now.
Okay I need to get bathed and go to the supermarket in time to be back an walk the LouLou briefly before a walk with G this afternoon.
Yet again I am not getting wither the accreditation or the studying done.
Boo to me!!
Bliss
XX
 

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Monday 10 September 2012

All memories are a hoax of some sort

The Awakening

Not seeing them is not the same as forgetting.
All memories are hoaxes.


A very good film



This will be a spoiler but I did recognise part the way through a sense of The Others. Mind you having realised this it made it easier for me to watch the scary bits. The anticipation created certainly got me to feel tense and full of angst. I had to keep stopping it. From the beginning though I was looking for the twist. I oscillated between Maud being involved in "real life" to it being a sense of The Others or of course The Sixth Sense. Anyhow, there were resemblances in it for me even though it was different.
I really thought Rebecca Hall was very good. I like her in Parade's End as well. She strikes me as rather beautiful and a good actress to boot. She is great as a period actress. I haven't seen her in anything other than period though. She carried the intellectual role well. Dominic West was also convincing. Rather dashing too in period drama. Nick Murphy looks as if he's one of the masters at period representation having had a look at his long list of historically based documentaries. The titles of some of Stephen Volk's screenplays look a little dubious to me. However I will not write him off. Excuse the pun.
So well worth a watch.

In terms of a story, I found it interesting the implication that memories had been created to eradicate the real memories. Having had a conversation just last evening about my belief that ghosts are really a humans recreation of the past and less about ghost actually existing. However in this the ghosts did actually exist. But no one could see them so perhaps they were repressed memories coming through. Even the poisoning part - there was no vomit visible and she did live.
Interesting ideas to never really confirm that the ghost existed in anything other than her mind. Except for the other little boy who had seen him. Although we never got to see him, he was simply dead from the beginning.
I have seen the arm of a girl. When at Epsom Wednesday NA. I was standing talking at the bar to the teas/coffees person and saw an arm beside me. Very petite and light skinned. When I whizzed around to look there was no one there. And I have also sensed in that room a real darkness emanating from one particular man. It was if the darkness was consuming everyone into it.
So who knows?
My memories and thoughts can create a stir in any place. I can become scared like a little child. Noises and darkness. I am a scaredy-cat really.

Sometimes I just want to be cuddled and protected.

Bliss
XX

 

Ultimatacular

This addiction is so evident to me. I put down food and the self-hatred, the negativity, the dishonesty os suddenly clear and exposed. But then having put down the food, fantasy and men are the next pick up.
As pointed out yesterday my by temproary sponsor (whilst my sponsor is away on holiday) sitting chatting and texting is a way of dating and I have a commitment to not dating.
DOH!
So here we go again, the need to pull back and that means having to say something. It feels so flipping ridiculous and annoying and extreme. At the same time the craziness has begun in my head. And I am encouraging the dating rather than discouraging it. My denial kicks in saying it is only friendship and I can manage this. All I need to do is be clear with him that I get easily confused and by liking him I need to be clear that this is really friendship because I cannot start any kind of "dating". Then the dreams started this morning. Because the longing is there for someone, just to have closeness and be held. And I was shown, thank you God, the pain from the longing, the insecurity, the confusion, the embarrassment, the shame. I really like G as a person, just as I really like JH and JB as people. But the pia starts when they are not the person I want them to be. And I get myself all involved before giving myself a chance to discover whther they are or not. They are all lovely, wonderful people. But that is as far as it needs to go. It is interesting chatting with G but this excessive chatting is not normal. The chaos begins when it's hours upon hours and I start to exaggerate this version of me. I want to appear funny and nutty and interesting and intelligent. I am interested in the things he is talking about and try to respond with things I am interested in and he's not really interested in those things. So I will mould myself to be interested in his things. It's started already you see. And then I wonder what his relationship is with all these other women. You see the signs are there too. Yes he befriends men but he also befriends women and is eyeing them up in the meetings. He told me so. I know it and justify it saying well that's just human. But he befriends women - casually going about his way to be friendly with newcomers, faces that are new to him anyway. He hadn't realised when he first met me that I had been in the rooms longer than little while. I wasn't a newcomer.
However I am really. I am new to a fuller recovery. I am vulnerable. I know that and he doesn't.
So I need to say that it may sound very weird but right now I am committed to not dating. And whilst it is porbably the furthest thing from his mind, what we've been doing, i.e. chatting for hours is laying havoc in my head. I am turning into all sorts of other things so for the time being will need to stop it. And return to jst being friendly and chat in and around the meetings.

Gosh! It seems so extreme and also I'm fed up with having to do this. The escalation is all part of the intrigue and excitement that ultimately takes me away from me in a most spectacular way.
Now why would I enter into all of this again? Well it's the power of this addiction I have, this illness ad the fact is that I am mentally ill. I enter into things despite knowing the probably outcomes. I celverly minimise the actions and justify the behaviours. I quickly forget the dramatic effects of the last relationship. I am nowhere near eady and want to get through the AWOL and gain a stronger more loving and respectful sense of self. During the conversation last evening I was thinking about ways of creating other types of dates such as going to visit plaes togeter - based on his interests of meditation and Buddhism and learning. And then thinking about inviting him for a walk with LouLou. It's all the little hooks I throw out. I want to stop.
Writing this here certainly exposes me. How ugly I feel and do not want this to be a repartee. I need to commit to my recovery. I do commit but I am scared of making it happen now.
I do not want to create a situation of rejection and abandonment. I do want to be heard and understood. God I do not have that power. Please can you guide me here.
I was thinking yesterday that I simply needed to be clear of my boundaries but I didn't say anything and I carried on the conversation into the early hours despite thinking I need to go to bed, despite nearly fallling asleep on the phone, despite knowing that this was contra to my commitment.
I am ashamed yet also know this is the full power in place. Give this addictive part of em room to wriggle and away I go.
I am talking about it and keeping it in the fore. God please please help me to find the strength.

Speaking with S (temproary sponsor) it was so easy to be honest. Except I didn't say I was up until 2am talking because that is absolute evidence that this is more than just a friendly chat. I can dress it up how I like but that is not usual. Not in my own standards anyway. So S suggested that I say to him aside from a meeting that I am realising I'm liking him more than I should. And at the moment I need to back off from that. I am afraid that by saying this he will feel rejected and abandoned because those have been his issues. And as S pointed out this is the craziness becoming evident, already thinking about and worrying aout how he will recieve something I have said. And also there I was looking for a little gift for him to touch him because I noted that things like that are things that stay with him.
It's for these reasons that I cannot be in any sort of relationship. All the mad thinking kicks in so instantly. Ad it shows how subtle this illness I have is - just talking with him and nothing more has provoked all of this in me. It's probably not even crossed his mind and even if it has then his actions are all OK. It's me that has this problem and it's me that has to address it. I should not have encouraged the calls in the first place and now having done so and enabled this lengthy conversations I have to bring it to a close. I wonder God if there is a simpler way of doing this. For instancce I can say I will have to knock the late and long calls on the head.
S reminded me I simply need to move away from the madness. I do not need to give myself a hrd time but I do need to take this seriously.
Step Two:
"We believe and know from experience that a Power greater than ourselves can remove thisobsession, straighen the twisted thinking, and restore the alcoholic to sane thought and behaviour"
"the power of resoning is slowly deteriorated. This encourages deception over our real mental health and fitness; it breeds a superior feeling or false security."
These were the keys from yesterdays AWOL. And the sharing really helped. L spoke about having put down the food she picks up men. She has just started dating and she's several years in recovery. But already there are issues and thankfully she has the esteem and strength to work through it. See G meet a man and start dating and then getting more serious then he ended it - she has to have a strong recovery to get through that. I admire her as I would be in pieces. So I cannot afford to even venture down that path of potential.
S reminded me to share it which I have done - two calls I've mentioned. Well one call and text conversation with T via Viber. I will make another call. I will take some more quiet time. I am writing about it honestly. Do I need to mention it to M?
I will and know that I will get some critique that is not comfortable to recieve from her. It always feels like I've done something really bad. Actually do I really need to put myself in that line of fire?
I'm not sure. I am not having so much contact because I am feeling drained by myself in the regular contact. She will see the contact with G as the reason. It is completely disconnected regards to her but maybe the lack of contact with her leaves a gap that he can wriggle into unknowingly.
I like the lengthy conversations mulling over ideas and beliefs and gaining understanding. But there aren't many people who want to do that. M would but I have stopped because it becomes contentious. I can listen but then the conversatons are M focused often. I don't necessary want to mull over what's going on for me as I do feel criticised. I am not sure that I am being criticised but I get told what to do. I don't really know how to say that I don't want feedback right now becaue she has got so offended by A and S around that. But I now know what and why they did that.
So there is room for a person to step in and hey presto it happens to be a man at the same time who I enjoy the company of. Dangerous combo mixed in with my addictive self.
So here is my mulling over space. And there are plenty of people to call too.

And then I wonder what it really is I'm escaping. It is light relief from the exhaustion of work, the anxiety of studying, the hurt connected with my dad and the fear of him dying. It is the shame of my greed in worrying that should my dad die first there is a battle to be had with T and do I really feel ready for that yet wanting the dough. Ugh! He's not even dead. I hate this sort of thing in me.
It is the avoidance of housework and organising my life and weekly chores to be done and never being done. It is an irritability with M and A recently. Perhaps that's hormones connected too. Some place for that irritable energy to fall.
It is worry about LouLou getting older. It is financial worries. The extra work I am doing is exhausting and yet it's that that keeps me afloat or rather keeps the things going that I want to have like high phone bills, trips to London and galleries, the odd book here and there that never ever gets read.
Oh and I have the ever outstanding accreditation dissertation.
Yep all of these things are easily left behind when flirting. It's nice attention when I want to be feel wanted and adored. I need to find love and respect for myself so that I need that less and less.

Bliss
XX

Friday 7 September 2012

The Set Aside Prayer

Dear God, Let me set aside everything I think I know about you, about me, about this way of life, and about these steps, for an open mind and a new experience of you, of me, of this way of life and of these steps. Amen

well speaking with H was interesting. As I talked about my thoughts and feelings she said that she noticed a lot of story in what I was saying. The messages from the past being repeated by saying things like this means that and if I don't do this it will cause that.
I was referring to work and the resentment that I'd been feeling and also the detachment I feel and then believing I am incapable, a failure, not good enough.

So she mentioned using the set aside prayer.... It's a great prayer. I should like to use it more often. There must be a creative way to utilise this and bring into my every day. Not just recite it but action it.

So Dear God, please help me to set aside these beliefs that if I don't complete all my work I'll appear as a failure and be judged by others. Help to set aside my blame too that actually we need more staff.
I have no doubts about this way of life I'm living through this fellowship I am now more engaged with. I want to keep an open mind to everything.
I am trying to be opne to simply experiencing life as it is and go with the flow. Then I can let go of rigidity with your help God. Thank you.

The other things that really struck me in our conversation was that she too gets really excited easily. I do and I get almost over excited and this is then followed by a massive crash. Now these I think are labelled as Bi-polar. Whether it is or isn't, does it really matter. What does the label actually achieve? The point is in having identified the behaviour, finding ways to manage it differently from the over stimulation that can evoke the high.


And as far as wanting a need for more study time amidst being able to work and have enough money I really liked H's prayer to God.
Dear God this is in my heart right now ad can you show me the way forward please. Amen.
I am sure there was more to it tha that. But it is sort of identifying what's there in my hearts desire and then handing it over to God. It's good to be given words to pray for these things.

So God, I do have this studying in my heart and would like to have more time to really engage with it but at the same time become fearful of having enough money as well. Please I hand this over to you to show me the way forward. And hopefully give me the strength to action and manage what you show me. Thank you god Amen.

Bliss
XX

Bliss
XX

Tolerance and accceptance

Are they the same thing? Or do they have to go hand in hand? And if so what is the subtle difference?

Tolerance
a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practises, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.

Acceptance
the act of tolerating or accommodate oneself to

acceptance involves tolerance. OK
So I need to accept that M is the way she is because actually her manner can be quite irritating and harsh. It's me that gets irritated ad needs to find a way of either just letting it be how it is and not get emotionally attached or move away.
I feel sad that there is the thought of moving away. I think I simply contact her less and less. Every contact seems difficult for me. It seems abrasive and competitive somehow. Now keeping the focus on me I know it is me that is reacting.
So tolerate and accept or move one. I keep trying.
I gradually stop trying.
For example I sent a simple text this morning following on from our conversation last evening. She had forgotten but sent a question mark to me. OK so that's the first bit of bristling on my part. Why just a question mark?
I will stop texting M. It seems that messages get misconstrued by me. And if I phone I need to limit the amount of time as I get irritated by the length of the call. So I have said I have a 15 minute break and I will limit the call from the off-set to 10 mins.
I am tried and irritable anyway I think so it's better not to get even more irritated as I can so easily with M.
Sometimes she really doesn't irritate me at all. We can have some lovely times together. And I suspect we both bring something to that but of course my tendency is to blame.
I want to be accepting of all - please help me God.
Sometimes it all seems so intense and difficult when all I am being is friendly and in contact.
If friendly and in contact isn't wanted then say it. I will gradually back off as far as we both want. I have already been through the pain of all of that and moving on.

Bliss
XX
 

On Resentment

As I started on my journey home, finally leaving work at around 19:40 last night I felt a surge of rage run through me. I was angry that I HAD to stay late if I wanted to hand over a clean slate before starting my long weekend of leave. I am so glad to not have to be going in for 4 days. I need this break as I am tired of it all. There were a couple of days when I felt very detached and wasn't sure of my irritation with people. As it turns out the 1:1's that I was actually worried about my irritation with were A, OK. But there is one client I am irritated by and feel shut down from being able to express the process. I haven't even been able to see the process.
Anyway this surge of rage. But I find it ugly too as then internally I was having a rant which fuels the rage. Thank goodness I was so tired that I was more like a wet rag by the time I picked up JB. He had kindly lent me his car whilst my was being serviced. I was so tired I really was limp in my body and I managed only to say that I was exhausted and angry about working late because of the lack of staff and over working culture I now find myself in. And then talking about it this morning, B asked if that wasn't actually only the fear that I'm going to be walked all over?
Yup! That's exactly it. I'm angry with myself for not being totally boundaried and just leaving it all undone - telling that it's all done but leaving it anyway.
What I didn't is hand a recovery plan to one client. I didn't do any of the outstanding discharge summaries. I didn't have a 1:1 with one client about boundaries (that's funny really isn't it?). I didn't collect my towels from the laundry room - I'll call this morning and speak with Jackie because otherwise they are likely to go missing). I didn't get to say goodbye to Peter. I didn't get to handover my clients.
It's naff.

So anyway it's important to step aside from the resentment. I need to accept that I chose to stay and make sure things were clearer for SH tomorrow. And that I had handed over to LK some of the information. I told her the client didn't have a recovery plan. But she will forget - that wasn't important to her.
Stepping away isn't so easy.
It is the way it is right now. LK has a culture of over working.
I need to find a way of accepting that rather than resenting it. The resentment really is with myself when I examine it.
I resent the fact that I didn't say NO and handover all the things that aren't yet done. And another thing is that I didn't want to leave things totally undone in case of any comeback and to cover my back but also try and leave less things for Sharon today.
It was my choice not to leave as soon as I'd done CD's notes. It as my choice not to dot he notes after the sessions at the time the previous day. It would just mean that that departure time was later but that's all part of the sessions I suppose. Hmmm
Ad I was eager to get my car delivered ad collected each evening. So I made choices.
OK I can step aside of blaming and accept my choice. So now I have time off.
My supervision by telephone isn't happening as agreed at 10 am. I will go for a walk and come back to start some studying at 11 for an hour. Take a break by going to the bank and post office and then lunch and then more studying this afternoon.
I forgot to email the counselling section of the dissertation for accreditation so I will have to leave that now until next week.
In the meantime I can finalise the other sections and they do not need to be as elaborate as I have currently got them.

Bliss
XX


 

South Africa

C sent me a few of her photos from her current stay in South Africa.

 




And these brought to the fore of my memories my trip to South Africa .....

Thank you - what a wonderful photo. That should really be framed.
Gosh! You are reminding me of my fabulous trip to South Africa. It was in about 1990 I think. I was there for just over 3 weeks. What a trip.
I started in Cape Town and drove to many fascinating areas (including Paarl and Stellenbosch as I was drinking then - actually it wasn't in excess at that time but then I was in a relationship ironically with an Italian man whose father made exceptionally good wine, from the grape. I was also eating eating eating).
 
I went to Hermanus Bay and I was so very fortunate to sit with my feet in the water where whales were swimming around. And then we drove around some of the towns and areas at the beginnings of the Garden route.
It was also along this journey that I discovered polished semi precious stones for the first time. They were so cheap I bought bags and bags. I had them in a glass vase but Joe took those too. I was always and still am disappointed I didn't get to keep them, along with some of the things we bought in China and Hong Kong and Bali. He took all of those things. Just material possessions but I suppose meaningful representations of trips and memories. As well of course as memories of time with him. That was a long relationship and not to be written about right here and now. So many tangents!!!!
 
 
There were a number of towns and scenes we passed through and visited.
 
The Cape of Good Hope of course was amazing. The meeting point of the two oceans. It was a clashing of waves and a bashing of winds coming together with such force. I remember it as wind noisy and boisterous.
 
I had only arrived the night before and was fast asleep when the hotel room phone went off. It was a colleague of mine from the UK phoning urgently to say that we had to get to Hermanus Bay, he'd been on the night shift and watching the news about the whales at Hermanus and didn't want me to miss them. We went off that very morning.
I did this .....
 
 
 
I hope you get to see them.
I lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire at the time we went on this trip. One evening driving around Cape Town we came across Aylesbury ice cream. I think it was on the way to an a very trendy area - it may have even been the port area? Oh I just looked it up - V&A Waterfront. Is it a well known place for restaurants and shops? I can't quite remember. I do remember that we were stopped by the police and asked for ID. I remember acting as if that was all OK and that I was street-wise (in a way I was having travelled extensively and already lived quite a "high" life) but inside I was alarmed and nervous. I've lived those two people all my life. Pretending as if I'm all knowing, cool and calm, taking it all in my experienced stride. But inside very sensitive to these situations I've found myself in all over the place.
 
I thought Paarl and Stellenbosh were alluring and not just for the wine. I enjoyed going from wine estate to wine estate - tasting. We bought wine as well. You know I can remember feeling embarrassed as we weren't big wine drinkers and I thought they'd really only be interested in people buying lots from them. Or in coach trippers because they'd end up with good sales. Not a couple trundling around on our own - uneducated in anything really and not big spenders. That's a theme of my lack of self worth in many, many situations.
We did a touristy visit to KWV wine emporium Paarl. A fascinating history of the cooperative of the wine estates.
But I was charmed by the estates and the white buildings. It seemed funny being amidst these places that had previously only been TV or film experiences. It's often been quite surreal a feeling when I end up being in the reality of something I'd only ever seen with the limits of the screen size. I remember that odd feeling the first time I was in the States.
Then we took a train (not the Blue Train) from Cape Town to Jo'burg. My want an interesting journey. We took a first class sleeper which back then was tuppence ha'penny. I was really amused at one station we pulled into. All the cute little children were lined up by the First class carriages - begging. They got given food and money in abundance. The noise levels were incredible - laughter and joy. As the train pulled out the little children turned into bigger children who starting spitting and throwing things. The noise of the angry First Class passengers was equally amusing. They were furious and some I overheard were raging about the cheek of it. I smiled as I listened to them ranting about being duped.
Resourceful and angry local people.
Ah yes the TransKaroo - the scenery was pretty stable until approaching Johannesburg. Leaving Cape Town started out quite changeable but then same same same - I guess the timing of the departure was scheduled so that the sleeping happened when the journey was most boring.
 
 
I did walk through the train and found Third Class. It sounds ever so grandiose but I don't mean it that way. Whilst I appreciated the cheapness of First class for me on my earnings which weren't so incredible by the way compared with the average in the UK at the time but comfortable enough, in South Africa, my money really gave me a high quality of life. But I felt guilty. Sitting in Third Class was where it was all happening. At the time I was there some people started singing and the whole carriage started to join in. White and black.
I did though return to the luxury of my private first class sleeper cabin.
Arriving in Jo'burg was a real change of atmosphere. i wasn't expecting to but I felt the undertones of danger. Having hired a car from the station and not knowing the area at all I realise it was rather stoopid of us at the time. We drove to our hotel and on the way heard gun shots. It seemed that at this time it was fairly normal. IN the paper the next morning we read of a shooting in Mayfair and some people had been killed. That was exactly where we were driving through. I think at the time we were there it was still very troublesome. I know there are still troubles but I truly hope it has improved.
The next day Joe and I decided to go for a walk around Jo'burg. The hotel concierge was most alarmed that we were going to stroll off. Only after a few 100 yards we realised why. It felt hostile.
Being in the travel industry albeit business travel I was very privileged and managed to negotiate a private Safari with this chap called Wally. It was Kruger. We were there for 4 days I think.
I decided to have my hair permed - as if it's not curly enough. At that time in my life I was all make up and hair dryers, straightening my hair every morning by pulling it under the intense heat of full power!! It took ages and a lot of sweating. So I decided that to go to the national park I'd have to be able to leave my hair curly. What a disaster. And then I had to face the hut accommodation and spiders! AAAAaRGH!
 
He really did treat us. Early starts to silently observe the dawn at a watering hole. M that was amazing watching the animals come in turn. First the lions, then the jackals, then the baboons, and so on in pecking order. I remembering sitting there thinking the show was all over when suddenly I noticed giraffe appear in the bush around the watering hole. They stood thre still for ages looking and gradually they moved towards the water along with the zebra and wildebeest - they seemed to all herd together. Finally the impala - by that time they were so passe but when we first drove in the reserve I was oohinh at aaahing at them springing about all over the place.
There was one day we were parked up and I enquired about this little fluffy cotton like balls in the bushes were beside. He explained that they were spider nests. Spiders that were minute in size. But as there were so many in each little puff ball nest that accumulatively they could sting and kill. Singularly it wouldn't even notice. At that time in my life I was terrified of spiders. Ironic really as were sitting watching a pride of lions at very close distance. I was afraid I'd be compelled to stick my arm out to try and touch them. A little like I feel compelled to jump off tall buildings. But then I was more terrified of these spider nests.
 
The-Kruger-National-Park-1
 
 
 
 
Joe was a very good looking fella. It would be nice to have a phot of him and many other of the wonderful men I have known but it just wasn't compatible.
 
We saw a elephant herd, rhinoceros, a lion pride, crocs, water buffalo - incredible birds of all varieties.
Claire I just loved that visit to Kruger. As I'm writing all sorts of memories are coming back to me.
We decided to go off in our hire car and went to Pretoria rather than stay in Jo'burg. Wow! What a beautiful city. The jacaranda were in full bloom and the entire city seemed to be mauve. The atmosphere was entirely different.
 
From there we spontaneously decided to drive to Sun City. When I think back on that drive now we were crazy. We went off completely unprepared in a little hire car. I think it was a 3 hour drive to Bophuthtswana. We barely saw a person apart from the odd person walking along carrying wares on their head. No petrol stations, no places to stop for food or water. Nothing. That's how I remember it anyway.
 
We had a couple of days in the gambling-fest and to be honest I found Sun City all so fake and pointless after the glory of the wildlife. It's a good job really that I never really had a big win because very time I've been gambling in any shape of form I feel the buzz. It was the same in Las Vegas. A couple of wins on arrival and I thought that was the way it was going to be ad then nothing. It then became tedious and boring. Phew. Mind you i do love the whole atmosphere and adrenalin rush of the horses and a race meet.
I remember they were preparing for the big Miss World competition to be held there at some point - so that was how long ago it was Joe and I were there - 1992. It was pretty quiet people-wise unlike Las Vegas. And it was still very much under construction.
 
 
I was sad about the wild life though - squashed out of the plains really by people into this tiny corner that rarely received enough rainfall to fill the rivers and lakes. I was praying every day for rain as it was particularly dry.
On the crazy drive back from Sun city to Jo'burg we were travelling into the night. And there was the most incredible light and colour display of lightening. Apparently it was common we later discovered but didn't mean rain. I was a spectacle of a light show and my memories don't do the experience justice.
 
And then we tipped over the top of a large hill down towards Jo'burg. what a glorious sight that was. Jo'burg twinkled like a glittering diamond. All the city lights surrounded by complete darkness all around. It was it's own beauty and spectacle for a city. But with the knowledge that it was also a city ravaged with angst and hatred. Today I pray for that to be lifted ad love to be strengthening. I suspect that will take a lot of time. If only people could find the trust in God and then the trust in people would not be tainted.
The next day we were leaving South Africa and the rain came down. Enormous drops of rain plopped on the car windscreen - washed the car of its dusty trip across what could well have been dangerous territory. I hope that the wildlife parks would also receive rain and that the animals, birds and creatures would be dancing in it. I really cried for them and their stifled lives. Elephants no longer roaming the entirety of Africa.
 
This doesn't quite capture what I recall. We were further away and saw the entire city from on high.
 
Oh and I did enjoy the tour of the diamond mines at Kimberly. Set up really as a masive museum. With a tour into the mines. I had an eye out for a diamond but I guess so had every tourist before me and no doubt since.

And not long after that we flew home.
So your visits to South Africa and your photos bring all of these memories flooding back.
wow isn't it great to have memories like these and have them all stirred again and actually run through them.
Obviously this may make boring reading since you are there yourself and experiencing these tings for real and in your own way.
Lucky you. I would hope some day to return and visit you and my gorgeous friend Kim.
How lucky I am to have seen so many glorious corners of our magical world. I do miss the ability to travel at will. It was if for a period in my life I had wings. Pity addiction was clouding the views.

Bliss
XX

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Extraordinary, sublime and divine me

Does that sound extravagant and arrogant?
I think not. And by being so it does not mean that every other person isn't. Each of us are. We just need to take a peek to see that part of us without forgetting that others are too. This is surely the path that joins worthlessness with arrogance?
The Universe offered to remove the veil briefly for me to see this part of me. If I can see it in me then I can see it in others. And that's the marvel. Thank you Universe, thank you God.

And thank you God for getting my accreditation to a nearly completed first draft. From here it should be much easier to get it completed. I might have to apply a day to it. And then 2 whole days to catching up with my studies.
I feel a light at the end of the tunnel that has been distant and even around a corner so as to be unseen.
I attended my driver awareness training an wish to be more present when driving and careful. I have booked my car service and organised the borrowing of JB's car. He's so generous and helpful.
I have let PD know about the conversation at work regarding referrals. I was uncomfortable with my fear-filled response to L. And handed it back to her to speak with PD but I wanted him to know the situation beforehand.
I have started clearing away a few things in the lounge. I have booked a haircut at last.
I will call my dad later this evening between the end of groups and Aftercare.

Yes things are getting there..... and I can claim my life as B said this morning.
I know that I can be worthy of choosing the right people in my life. I am not sure yet how this bodes with friends I have. There is no reason for my friendship to lessen but I don't need to pander to the friendships in the areas that they don't meet. I like the people nonetheless. I don't feel quite so needy that's all.

There is of course more to write about all of this but for today I am feeling at ease with myself and all the issues that I am faced with.
They have not gone away - concern for my dad, sadness about our relationship, concern about finances and how to afford everything I want to do yet knowing I can adjust things to afford what I need. I have concerns for AB, she is more paranoid and less active. She is drinking heavily. I find it so sad to see it all going to pot. Oddly enough with RB gathering weight so is AB. She lost masses when RB was losing. It's such a dysfunctional dynamic.
I have pain in my side. Apparently it could be sciatica. no doctor has considered that or mentioned it before. Interesting. I think it has to be something much more deadly to be worthwhile.

So I shall continue doing some preparation study - already some way behind the schedule

Bliss
XX

Sunday 2 September 2012

Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings

Well what a wonderful exhibition. The great masters truly showing their skills as drawers. There were so many piees of work there I cannot recall them all. And of course they weren't all simple drawings.
I don't think I'd seen a Pisarro before. I was really drawn into the painting I saw. I didn't note its title. But it was the use of creams in a scenery that really just kept me there looking.

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MANTEGNA TO MATISSE:

MASTER DRAWINGS FROM THE COURTAULD GALLERY

14 June to 9 September 2012

Captions

1. Workshop of Hugo van der Goes

(c. 1440-82)

A seated female saint, c. 1475-85

Pen, point of the brush and grey ink,

heightened with white on green prepared paper, 230 x 189 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

2. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Studies for a Saint Mary Magdalene

c. 1480-82

Pen and brown ink, 139 x 79 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

3. Michelangelo Buonarrotti (1475-1564)

The Dream (Il Sogno), c. 1533

Black chalk, 398 x 280 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

4. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569)

Kermesse at Hoboken, 1559

Pen and brown ink, 265 x 394 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

5. Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)

(1591-1666)

Child seen from behind, c. 1625

Red chalk with stumping, 301 x 211 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

6. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)

Saskia with one of her children, c. 1635

Red chalk, 141 x 106 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

7. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Portrait of Helena Fourment, c. 1630-31

Black and red chalk heightened with white, pen and ink

612 x 550 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

8. Charles Joseph Natoire (1700-1777)

Life class at the Académie royale, 1746

Watercolour, chalk (black) on paper

454 x 323 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

9. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)

Study for ‘La Grande Odalisque’, 1814

Graphite, 185 x 254 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

10. J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)

Dawn after the wreck, c. 1841

Watercolour and gouache, 251 x 368 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

11. Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Apples, bottle and chairback, c. 1904-6

Graphite and watercolour, 462 x 604 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London

12. Georges Pierre Seurat (1859-1891)

Female Nude, c. 1881

Conté crayon and pencil, 630 x 484 mm

© The Courtauld Gallery, London
 
Thomas Girtin painted Appledore. I hadn't realised how special Appledore actually was and there we were as a family there every year. I have good feelings about Appledore.
 

 What's utterly amazing is the incredible collection the Courtauld has. How did they acquire such an incredible collection. They had one of the most famous Renoirs, Van Gogh, Manet. I will need to return to the Courtauld and just sit. If I lived in London now I would spend lunch times there amidst the wonder of this art. How have I come to be so absorbed by art works? It's sort of taken over my soul. I want more and more. Ha! There's a familiar thing.
I was also mesmerised by Rubens painting of Helena. I was also wondering about his age when he married her. It seemed wrong and a lady I encountered and I both hoped that he might have been a kind and gentle man. His painting of her dress was just so exquisite. And was this her wedding gown? Her father was a silk trader so no doubt this was contributory in her style and no doubt her dowry too.
I get such stimulation from the creativity. Looking at the strokes or the touch of the paint on the canvass or board. The shapes they've seen and transposed. The ideas. The colours. It's just so incredible to me. I so want to possess these works. I bought a print of Seurat. The woman emerging out of the darkness. The scribbles of black crayon were intriguing me and just how this beautiful woman does seem to be emerging from all the scribbles. Just stunning.
And then home ..... :(

Press Release
"




MANTEGNA TO MATISSE:

MASTER DRAWINGS FROM THE COURTAULD GALLERY

The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14 June to 9 September 2012

The Frick Collection, New York, 2 October 2012 to 27 January 2013

The Courtauld Gallery holds one of the most important collections of drawings in Britain. Organised in collaboration with The Frick Collection in New York, this exhibition presents a magnificent selection of some sixty of its finest works. It offers a rare opportunity to consider the art of drawing in the hands of its greatest masters, including Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Goya, Manet, Cézanne and Matisse. The Courtauld last displayed a comparable selection of its masterpieces more than twenty years ago and this exhibition will bring the collection to new audiences nationally and internationally.

The exhibition opens with a group of works dating from the 15
th century, from both Northern and Southern Europe. An exquisite and extremely rare early Netherlandish drawing of a seated female saint from around 1475-85 is rooted in late medieval workshop traditions (fig. 1). It was also at this time that drawing assumed a new central role in nourishing individual creativity, exemplified by two rapid pen and ink sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. These remarkably free and exploratory sketches show the artist experimenting with the dynamic twisting pose of a female figure for a painting of Mary Magdalene (fig. 2). For Renaissance artists such as Leonardo, drawing or disegno was the fundamental basis of all the arts: the expression not just of manual dexterity but of the artist’s mind and intellect.
These ideas about the nature of drawing achieved their full expression in the flowering of draughtsmanship in the 16th century. At the heart of this section of the exhibition is Michelangelo’s magisterial The Dream (fig. 3). Created in 1533, this highly complex allegory was made by Michelangelo as a gift for a close friend and it was one of the earliest drawings to be produced as an independent work of art. More typically, drawings were made in preparation for other works, including paintings, sculptures and prints. Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s engaging scene of drunken peasants cavorting at a festival in the Flemish village of Hoboken was drawn in 1559 in preparation for a print (fig. 4). Whereas Michelangelo sought ideal divinely inspired beauty in the human figure, Bruegel here revels in the disorder of everyday life.

Despite the important preparatory function of drawing, many of the most appealing works in the exhibition were unplanned and resulted from artists reaching for their sketchbooks to capture a scene for their own pleasure – Parmigianino’s Seated woman asleep is a wonderful example of such an informal study surviving from the early 16th century. Drawn approximately 100 years later in around 1625, Guercino’s Child seen from behind retains the remarkable freshness and immediacy of momentary observation (fig. 5). Guercino was a compulsive and brilliantly gifted draughtsman. Here the red chalk lends itself perfectly to the play of light on the soft flesh of the child sheltering in its mother’s lap. No less appealing in its informality is Rembrandt’s spontaneous and affectionate sketch of his wife, Saskia, sitting in bed cradling one of her children (fig. 6). The exhibition offers a striking contrast between this modest domestic image and Peter Paul Rubens’s contemporaneous depiction of his own wife, the beautiful young Helena Fourment (fig. 7). Celebrated as one of the great drawings of the 17th century, this unusually large work shows the richly dressed Helena – who was then about 17 – moving aside her veil to look directly at the viewer. Created with a dazzling combination of red, black and white chalks, this drawing was made as an independent work of art and was not intended for sale or public display. In its imposing presence, mesmerising skill and subtle characterisation, it is the equal of any painted portrait.
The central role of drawing in artistic training is underlined in a remarkable sheet by Charles Joseph Natoire from 1746. It shows the artist, seated in the left foreground, instructing students during a life class at the prestigious Académie royale in Paris (fig. 8). Drawing after the life model and antique sculpture was considered essential in the 18th and 19th centuries. One of the great champions of this academic tradition was Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. The beautiful elongated forms of the reclining nude in his Study for the ‘Grand Odalisque’, 1813-14, represents the highest refinement of a precise yet expressive linear drawing style rooted in the academy (fig. 9). Outside the academy, drawing could offer the artist a means of liberating creativity. Goya’s Cantar y bailar (Singing and dancing), 1819-20, comes from one of the private drawing albums which the artist used to inhabit the world of his dreams and imagination.

Canaletto’s expansive and meticulously composed View from Somerset Gardens, looking towards London Bridge


is one of several highlights of a section exploring the relationship between drawing and the landscape. This group stretches back as early as Fra Bartolomeo’s Sweep of a river with fishermen drawn in around 1505-09, and also includes a particularly strong selection of landscapes from the golden age of the British watercolour. The interest in landscape is nowhere more powerfully combined with the expressive possibilities of watercolour than in the work of J.M.W. Turner. His late Dawn after the Wreck of around 1841 was immortalised by the critic John Ruskin, who imagined the solitary dog shown howling on a deserted beach to be mourning its owner, lost at sea (fig. 10). For Ruskin, this was one of Turner’s ‘saddest and most tender works’.

The Courtauld collection includes an outstanding selection of drawings and watercolours by the great French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists for whom the Gallery is most famous. Apples, Bottle and Chairback is one of Cézanne’s finest late works in any technique (fig. 11). Here we see the artist pushing watercolour to its extreme through his extraordinary intuitive but masterful handling of successive layers of coloured washes over luminous white paper. Another highlight of this group is the equally remarkable large crayon drawing by Cézanne’s younger contemporary, Georges Seurat. His standing female nude materialises in an almost unfathomable manner from an intricate web of curving crayon lines (fig. 12). The exhibition concludes with work by the two greatest artists of the 20th century, Picasso and Matisse, who reinvented the art of drawing for the modern age.

The Courtauld’s drawings collection is largely the result of a series of remarkable individual gifts. They include the drawings presented by Samuel Courtauld alongside his collection of French Impressionist paintings, the bequest by Sir Robert Witt of some 3,000 drawings in 1952, and Count Antoine Seilern’s Princes Gate bequest which, in 1978, brought many of the most famous individual drawings into the collection. Additionally, the works in the exhibition reveal rich and intriguing earlier collecting histories in which artist collectors such as Peter Lely in the 17th century and Thomas Lawrence and Joshua Reynolds in the 18th century feature alongside some of the great princely and connoisseurial collectors of Europe.

Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery
is organised under the auspices of the IMAF Centre for Drawings which was established in 2010 to support the study, conservation and public enjoyment of The Courtauld’s collection. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition has been prepared in collaboration with The Frick Collection and features twenty authors contributing entries on individual works in their specialist areas, often with new technical research undertaken at The Courtauld. Spanning some 500 years, Mantegna to Matisse offers an opportunity to study and enjoy a remarkable array of masterpieces. The exhibition also aims to celebrate the great versatility and diversity of draughtsmanship and invites audiences to consider what makes a master drawing.

 
This afternoon I've watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. What a lovely little afternoon film. The acting was of such a high standard. Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Bill Nighy (I want to marry him), and others. it was an uplifting film and amusing too. I want to live in Jaipur of course. It romanticised it all. I mean how ON earth could I afford to live there? How on earth could these old people afford to live there? But the idea was simply enticing.
 
Directed by John Madden.
I liked this quote:
Evelyn: Nothing here has worked out quite as I expected.
Muriel: Most things don't. But sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff
And of course the one repeated throughout. "everything will be alright in the end and if it's not alright, it's not the end".
I have not done any studying. I've sort of written it off and delayed the start until next weekend. I have a long weekend and will study all day Friday. Munch on Saturday, study all day Sunday and Monday. Well there is the AWOL on Sunday as well. I do not feel inclined or disciplined. I am scared I am going to write myself off the degree. This would be disastrous, another thing not completed. Am I sabotaging?
P{lease God guide me. I am thinking I should be studying something like art history or creative. And yet this degree would help me with my potential earnings and personal sense of credibility. I love the subject as well. I am fascinated by humans.
It seems these approaching last years are too demanding on me whilst I am so exhausted from work. Not to mention the long hours at work and the demands on my spiritual, physical and mental resources. God I need some help here.
Bliss
XX

ps - I really am incredibly lukcy. I wrote this morning (6 Sep) to the gallery just enquiring if there was any way to get hold of a poster for the exhibition. And I received an email back sayig yes and they would post it.
I never imagined I would be so lucky.Thank you Universe. It's of little consequence in the greater scheme of things. But they didn't sell them so it will be quite special to me to have one.
x